Effingham Grant was a British diplomat, businessman, and philanthropist who settled in Romania.
13 Facts About Effingham Grant
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In 1837 Effingham Grant found a vacancy at the British Consulate in Wallachia, under the command of Sir Robert Gilmour Colquhoun, who would take care of his training.
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On October 28,1850 Grant married Zoe Racovita, the daughter of Alexandru Racovita and Ana Golescu, and the granddaughter of Dinicu Golescu.
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In 1849, Effingham Grant was sent by Colquhoun to Transylvania, to meet with Jozef Bem and obtain a first-hand report on the Russian intervention in the area, during the Hungarian Revolution.
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At the start of the Crimean War, Effingham Grant was left in charge of the British Consulate in Bucharest; in early January 1854 he was reporting to the Foreign Office on Russian pressures in Wallachia.
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Effingham Grant later decided to give up his diplomatic career and to devote himself to business.
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Effingham Grant built there a large workshop for assembling and repairing agricultural machinery.
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In 1864, Effingham Grant founded the first tobacco processing workshop in Romania, the Manufactura de Tutun de la Belvedere.
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Effingham Grant established in 1879 the Regia Monopolurilor Statului in the area; he parceled out the land around the factory and sold it to the workers, giving birth to what would become the Regie neighborhood of Sector 6 of Bucharest.
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Effingham Grant was responsible for the construction of a bread factory on Calea Plevnei; as early as 1863, he brought equipment from the United Kingdom for this purpose, and the building was completed in 1868.
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In 1865 Effingham Grant began a new business, growing orchids; later, this business gave the name of Strada Orhideelor.
12.
Effingham Grant was the editor of the political newspaper Concordia, which supported the National Liberal Party.
13.
One of his sons, Constantin Effingham Grant, fought as a soldier in the Romanian War of Independence, and then in Algeria with the French Foreign Legion, while another son, Nicolae Effingham Grant, became a noted painter.